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Old 10th April 2009, 12:34   #31
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Originally Posted by GTO View Post
I only wish more and more people starting using our pre-delivery inspection checklist? I mean, it's out there and available even to guest viewers. What stopped you?

Irrespective, as everyone mentioned, just the fact that you have taken delivery a month back means the car is yours to keep.
One would expect pre-delivery inspection checklist to be taken care off by `reputed' manufacturers themselves. After all, one pays more for a Honda precisely because one expects lesser hassles and higher ethical and customer service standards. Second, the car was delivered in end-Mar. and so was less than a week old when the problem started. I am pretty sure that this would have had a substantially lesser chance of happening with say Honda of US or Japan.
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Old 10th April 2009, 20:22   #32
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Agreed, Vasudeva. But I'd rather trust myself with the checking than some dude whom I don't know from a fly on the wall. After all, it is my money on the line!
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Old 11th April 2009, 01:42   #33
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Yasho just enjoy your car.
Its not like the electricals fried up.What you are talking about are cosmetic defects and they don't necessarily mean you got a Lemon.It is sad that you had to experience this with a new car but don't fret about it.
Enjoy your new car and don't go around looking for problems as that will only cause you to lose your mind. City is a good car and once the rattle is solved don't think that you got ripped off or got a lemon.
Enjoy an excellent buy and a new car.
Cheers
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Old 11th April 2009, 11:43   #34
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Just because it has a badge?

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Originally Posted by morphin1 View Post
Yasho just enjoy your car.
Its not like the electricals fried up.What you are talking about are cosmetic defects and they don't necessarily mean you got a Lemon.It is sad that you had to experience this with a new car but don't fret about it.
Enjoy your new car and don't go around looking for problems as that will only cause you to lose your mind. City is a good car and once the rattle is solved don't think that you got ripped off or got a lemon.
Enjoy an excellent buy and a new car.
Cheers
While it was for the customer to check the car before accepting delivery. It is unethical for the dealer to palm off an used / abused / damaged car onto him.

What is Yasho supposed to do? Stare at the badge in the centre of the steeing wheel and hypnotise himself into saying "It is a ________ - therefore it is infalliable, it is the BEST car" ?

A rip off is a rip off, whether it is by Honda or someone else.

Cheers,
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Old 11th April 2009, 15:42   #35
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Arya honda is leat bothered aboout its customers,just try sending them a legal notice.Any lawyer will give a notice for 1000rs(you will find them at any court near your area.And in turn ask for extended warranty free of cost.Man these dealers are notorious,now thats not aonly skoda but also honda!
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Old 11th April 2009, 16:00   #36
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Originally Posted by kedarwalke View Post
Arya honda is leat bothered aboout its customers,just try sending them a legal notice.Any lawyer will give a notice for 1000rs(you will find them at any court near your area.And in turn ask for extended warranty free of cost.Man these dealers are notorious,now thats not aonly skoda but also honda!
I have to agree with kedar. Arya honda along with it's sister concerns - Shaman Tata and Ford - have horrible dealer experience stories. I have always dissuaded people from buying their cars from them. Have personally had a very bad experience with them as well.
Advice you to get this issue sorted, get extended warrantee free and change servicing to Linkway Honda.
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Old 11th April 2009, 16:14   #37
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Originally Posted by vasudeva View Post
One would expect pre-delivery inspection checklist to be taken care off by `reputed' manufacturers themselves...
Absolutely what any one would expect vasudeva; but then there are always outliers (intended and unintended). Since the manufacturer / dealer has short term incentives in passing off a lemon, PDI can go only so far. It's somewhat like "never ask a barber whether you need a haircut".

Team BHP's PDI helped me in nailing that Skoda was giving me an old vehicle, which was damaged (either by the dealer or by Skoda). That saved me 16 lakhs. Of course it takes enormous amount of malafide intent to forge my registration which was my case.

@ Yashodeep:

Can you find out the VIN of your car (should be either in the windshield or on the sides of the seat)? If the VIN indicates that the vehicle is more than 6 months old, then you can try writing to Honda saying this was an old vehicle?

Can you ask for the PDI report of your vehicle from Honda? I am not sure if it is possible, but I guess it indicates that you really want to confirm that you got a defect free vehicle.

Separately, possibly on a biased note, I find the auto mags not very helpful; and in fact not experienced in the process of buying and owning cars like us. They also have incentives to be in the good books of car makers because of reasons like advertising, getting cars for testing and so on. To my mind it is unlikely they are competent to advise on these matters. For instance I never found a detailed PDI check list like the one in Team BHP by any mag - and I think that's the basic to start with.

Would request you to keep pushing them for your sake and for those of future buyers.

Anyway, I wish you all the best and I hope things turn out fine.

Cheers,

Last edited by diffsoft : 11th April 2009 at 16:18.
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Old 11th April 2009, 16:45   #38
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Originally Posted by diffsoft View Post
Separately, possibly on a biased note, I find the auto mags not very helpful; and in fact not experienced in the process of buying and owning cars like us. They also have incentives to be in the good books of car makers because of reasons like advertising, getting cars for testing and so on. To my mind it is unlikely they are competent to advise on these matters. For instance I never found a detailed PDI check list like the one in Team BHP by any mag - and I think that's the basic to start with.

Cheers,


If auto mags started taking up every case they would soon cease publishing.

It all boils down to the image the brand wants to portray and dealerships are the front line in getting the message across.
Surprisingly, brands are gradually remembering to forget the basic rule...

At the end, even a Maruti is someone's Mercedes
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Old 11th April 2009, 21:50   #39
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Vasudeva, this seems to be a very painful incident, and possibly a rarity for a Honda dealer. However, the dealer has certainly been proactive in trying to sort out your problems, but not entirely to your satisfaction.

I would suggest you maintain a factual record of the problems you have faced/are currently facing now, by emailing the same to Honda, as well as, as far as possible, maintaining a photographic record. The fact that there was a flawed windscreen and dented door on your car would have carried far more weight if you kept a few photographs.

If the dealer knows that you ARE taking and saving photographs of every misdeed of theirs (if you can call it that), they would treat you and your car with velvet gloves.
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Old 13th April 2009, 16:05   #40
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it's very clear that automobile companies in India are taking consumers for a ride. The 'chalta hai' attitude is going to cost us very dear. And this is a fact in our daily activities. We have to stand up for what is our right to have or at least to derive the value for every single rupee that we spend.

With regards to my case, I have clicked pictures of my car at the workshop before and after the replacements. But, what's the point now.

As for the VIN number, I just received the vehicle registration smart card issued by the RTO. The vehicle mfg date is mentioned as 03/2009. So i guess it should be accurate. Even though I will verify the VIN No.

I want to write about my case to Honda Japan but I am unable to procure any live email address. Could team-bhp help me with this?

Also, should I actually ask the dealer to give in writing that if anything goes wrong with the car they will cater to it and fix it free of cost?

And yes, I have also received the extended 2 years warranty. So now I have 2+2 yrs EW.

I will soon post my initial driving experience. Will be eager to get responses from current owners of the new City.

Thanks,
Yashodeep.
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Old 13th April 2009, 17:15   #41
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In Bangalore the RTO writes whatever the agent fills in. In my case the car was certainly older than Dec 06, but the RC book said Jun 07. VIN is the foolproof way to check the year and also the serial number (that would give an approx date of make). You can also see if the tyres have any manufacturing date and usually tyres will be running at a 15 day inventory so M+1 should be the date of make of the car.

I would suggest you write to or even call up Honda India than writing to Japan - because if the Japan mail gets fwded to India it may not be very favorable.

Honda certainly has a fantastic reliability track record in India and it most likely arises because of the principles of the company - put customer first etc. Since they would want to maintain that image they would take your complaint seriously.

Why don't you call up Jnaneswar Sen, who seems to be Head of Marketing in India? Call up their Board Line and say you are a customer and get a 30 sec window with him.

All the best!

Cheers,
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Old 13th April 2009, 17:36   #42
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Yashodeep View Post
I have clicked pictures of my car at the workshop before and after the replacements. But, what's the point now.
Send them to Honda as a record that you have reported the incident. Mark a copy to the dealer too.
Quote:
I want to write about my case to Honda Japan but I am unable to procure any live email address. Could team-bhp help me with this?
Google for Honda's worldwide website.
Quote:
Also, should I actually ask the dealer to give in writing that if anything goes wrong with the car they will cater to it and fix it free of cost?
For that you have the Honda warranty! Any dealer will fix it free of cost under warranty.
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Old 13th April 2009, 19:25   #43
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Originally Posted by diffsoft View Post
I would suggest you write to or even call up Honda India than writing to Japan - because if the Japan mail gets fwded to India it may not be very favorable.
He already wrote to Honda India, but sadly, no response from them yet!
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Old 14th April 2009, 11:33   #44
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Boss, I think the dealer has taken you for a ride...Its definitely a refurbished test car. Probably the dealer hasnt paid much attention refurbishing the same. Didnt you have a PDI done at the stock yard? That would have saved you from some hassles! However, since the dealer has already replaced the defective parts, it would be difficult to fight against him.

I too had a similar experience when I got a PDI done at the stockyard while taking delivery of my Dads ANHC a fortnight ago...I somehow am still wary as regards the fact that the dealer might have duped me. Anyways, I am a bit surprised with the quality of parts used by Honda and blatant cost cutting(They even dont fit an engine sump guard?)!

I would advise you to send a legal notice to them to begin with and see the response from the dealer.
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Old 14th April 2009, 12:38   #45
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Agreed, Vasudeva. But I'd rather trust myself with the checking than some dude whom I don't know from a fly on the wall. After all, it is my money on the line!
Strange as it may sound, but dealers here get offended and are reluctant to allow you to inspect new vehicle before delivery. It happened when I purchased my Honda Unicorn last year, he was simply like -- we will give you a call when the vehicle is registered. I refused and asked him to get my the bike before I buy, he had excuses like -- the storage is far away sir, the guy will drive fast in the run-in period when he gets it from there and blah..blah blah. I just declined paying a single penny unless I see the vehicle and then he obeyed the next day. Unfortunately, we couldn't do that when we bought my sister's Activa few years ago from the same dealer - and since it had long waiting period, they didn't allow us to do that. Worse still, many dealers here urge you to sign the delivery challan before they even show you the vehicle. A lot can go wrong after inspection to registration, given the careless attitude of the people employed by the dealers. My friend faced this problem, his new Estillo had minor dents when he took delivery and since it was registered, nothing could be doen about that. The dealer himself is a well-known politician! :(

We really need good consumer protection laws in action here, till then these unscrupolous delaers just have fun at our expense and get away with that!
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